MP IAS officer, junior suspended over bribe conversation

The Madhya Pradesh government on Monday put an IAS officer and his subordinate under suspension following an official probe into their alleged involvement in a conversation for bribery.

The state government had initiated a probe after a recorded conversation between tribal welfare commissioner and 1994 batch IAS officer Jagdish Narayan Malpani and Barwani assistant commissioner RK Shroti came out in media on November 27.

In the conversation, Malpani was heard asking Shroti to meet him, saying the latter would be ‘unwell’ if he tried to ‘eat’ everything alone. Shroti could be heard denying having received any amount and insisting that he was not ‘that type’ of officer.

The state government asked additional chief secretary (ACS), water resources department, RS Julania to probe into the matter after posting Malpani as OSD in the ministry at Bhopal. Julania talked to both the officers and submitted his report to the government.

On Monday, the state government suspended Malpani and Shroti stating in a press release that their conduct was found to be in contravention of the all India service rules, 1968.

A similar incident had surfaced recently in which Jabalpur chief conservator of forests Ajeet Shrivastava was found in a suspicious conversation with a timber merchant. Shrivastava was transferred and ACS home BP Singh was asked to probe the incident. The probe report is awaited.